Greensboro Program Helps Teens in Crisis, Aims to Make Them Feel Safe

Youth Focus is expanding its Safe Place program into downtown Greensboro, partnering with Downtown Greensboro Incorporated's ambassador team to create visible, mobile access points for teens in crisis across the city center.

The Safe Place program is a national initiative that supports youth under 18 through trained representatives. Participating communities display a yellow Safe Place sign to signal that trained representatives are available to connect youth with safety, support and access to nearby resources. Youth Focus already operates more than 140 Safe Place sites across Alamance, Davidson, Guilford and Randolph counties; the downtown expansion brings that presence directly into Greensboro's urban core.

The process works in stages. When one of DGI's Downtown Ambassadors encounters a young person in need, the ambassador first verifies the child's safety, then calls the Youth Focus team. From there, a Youth Focus staff member heads downtown to make direct contact.

"One of the team members from Youth Focus are going to come downtown as soon as we can get here," Roethlinger said. "Talk to that young person and make them feel comfortable and make them feel safe, and we're going to take them back to our crisis shelter, Act Together."

Act Together, Youth Focus's emergency shelter, serves children aged 17 years and younger facing crisis with family, homelessness or who are victims of neglect or abuse. More than 120 families come through the shelter in a year, and guests can stay up to 21 days depending on their situation.

The partnership with Downtown Greensboro Incorporated gives the program a street-level infrastructure it would otherwise lack. DGI's Downtown Ambassadors Program runs seven days a week, with eight ambassadors rotating across downtown in shifts to keep the area clean, support nearby businesses and offer visitor guidance. That constant movement, DGI Vice President Rob Overman noted, turns the ambassador corps into a distributed safety network.

"This also ensures that they are having a visible presence in all parts of downtown as well, so you'll see them walking," Overman said. "They get a lot of steps in."

The initiative was highlighted by FOX8 on March 12.